Wednesday, July 2, 2014

The Brainy Game

I am very excited about the latest Whole Brain Teaching innovation from Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching.  It is Competition Brainies.  Brainies are concepts that all students need to know in critical thinking, grammar, and punctuation.  There is also a category of "special" Brainies.  Below is a list of the Brainies in each category:

Critical Thinking:  because, and, Also, For example, In conclusion, but however, If-then, Triple Whammy, detail adder, simile/metaphor 

Grammar:  independent clause, dependent clause, adjective, appositive, dependent/independent clause, independent/dependent clause

Punctuation:  capital, end marks, colon semi-colon, coma, indent, quotes, apostrophe

Specials:  Complete sentence please!, shallow, Help me!, change(s), topic sentence, deep, deep citation

There are also three very special Brainies that make up the Einstein Triangle.  They are compare, contrast, and connect 5W+H.

Each Brainie has both a gesture and a picture associated with it.  You can download a copy of all of the Brainies along with complete descriptions of each at www.wholebrainteaching.com.  Just go to the free downloads section and look for the Brainy Game.  

The Brainies form the foundation for oral writing in the classroom.  The concept behind oral writing is that if a child can speak it, he can write it.  So students are asked to write orally many times through out the day using these gestures.  Once they have learned and practiced these gestures through oral writing, they are ready to play the Brainy Game.  There are two levels to this game.  In the first level the teacher selects a topic and one or more Brainies.  Students work with a partner or partners to create as many oral sentences with  Brainy words and gestures as possible within one minute.  Students keep track with tally marks of the number of sentences that their team was able to create within one minute. The game is then played again, and students try to beat their score.

The second level of the game is called Coach B's Competition Brainies.  In this game the teacher provides students with an academic topic.  Students are given one minute to work with partners and plan how to use the highest scoring Brainies in an oral essay on the topic.  Within a three minute time limit, with a video camera recording the action, the teacher selects at random one student after another to use Mirror Words and speak a sentence in a triple whammy essay on the topic.  If a student needs help, he/she can call "Help me!"  The rest of the class will then call out ideas.  If a student makes an error, the teacher calls, "Your still cool!"  The student then fixes the error, calls "Help me!" or the teacher, if needed, can correct the error.  At the end of three minutes the class watches the video (instant replay) of the game and calculates their total score.  (Each Brainy has a point value attached to it.)  The class can then play again and try to beat their score on the same topic.

It is recommended that all students have a copy of the Brainies at their seat, and that during the Brainy Game, the Brainies are projected for all of the students to see.  I decided that since we will be using the Brainies on a daily basis during oral writing, I would create a bulletin board out of them.  I am trained in Thinking Maps, so I have decided to create a Tree Map of the Brainies with four branches:  critical thinking, grammar, punctuation, and special Brainies.  I have printed in color all of the Brainies to place under the appropriate branches.  I am also going to post their point values on small stars next to each Brainie.  When I have the bulletin board done and up, I will post a picture of it.

For more information click on the link below to watch a webcast that Coach B. recently did on the Brainy Game.
                                                                        http://livestre.am/4RjGb

1 comment:

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